Smith's Custom Meats & Deer Processing, Inc. was founded by Scott and Susan Smith October 1st, 2008, in Sherrard, IL. We transformed our two story three car garage into a 600 square foot wild game processing shop!
Now after continuous growth in 2013 we have expanded by building a new facility South of Viola, IL on Hwy 67 and West on 85th Avenue. Our new facility is 2,300 square feet, nearly four times bigger and just 12 miles from where we started. With this new facility we will continue to process your deer and wild game as we would our own, with the best spices, pork, beef and cheeses available.
We have doubled our intake of deer since we opened our new shop in Viola, so we have added on AGAIN, 960 Sq feet, with 400 Sq feet of that being freezer space. We have also added an exit driveway, and additional parking.
2020/2021 These years are trying with the Covid-19 pandemic, especially if you are a meat processor!
In mid 2020 we decided to obtain our Type II USDA Processing Permit and start processing domestic hogs! After some trial and error we decided that we would expand once again by adding 1,728 square feet to our building! In this building we will be adding a large holding cooler and a blast chill cooler, a temperature controlled processing room and several pieces of new equipment.
2021- We will be welcoming to our corporation several members of our family as full-time associates!
Susan who has retired from the banking world. Sam Smith, Assistant VP, Processing Manager and part owner will be joining us from the Aledo, IL area, and of course me (Scott). We have also hired a 30 year experienced butcher from the Cambridge, IL area- Rod Helg!
In April 2022 we became a Type I processing plant; fully inspected by the Illinois Department of Agriculture. We also hired one new full-time associate; Butcher, Allen Viager.
In August of 2024 Smith's opened an additional retail location store front in downtown Aledo located at 108 N College Avenue. "Smith's Custom Meats and General Store" has a little bit of everything at this location, all of the finest quality steaks, cheeses and even some candy and ice cream. We still offer all of the retail at our processing plant in Viola however, this location has been a great addition to our company for the high traffic location.
Since the new Aledo Retail addition, we have hired an additional full-time employee at our processing plant and 4 part-time employees at our Aledo location.
Our plant number is #21810, and we process 450 beef and 550 to 600 hogs yearly.
We will also still be processing boneless deer during hunting season.
